Banned Books Week 2025
Banned Books Week 2025: "Censorship is So 1984."
This year's Banned Books Week theme is tied to the novel "1984" by George Orwell. It speaks to the importance of ensuring that books and other forms of information are freely accessible to all.
If large numbers of people believe in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it. But if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.
—George Orwell, author, c. 1945
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ALA Book Ban DataDetails of challenges: numbers, reasons, & map of geographic areas.
Top 10 Challenged Books of 2024
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Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024Downloadable, full-page PDF.
10 Years of Book Challenges by State
More Organizations, Websites, Resources
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Book Censorship DatabaseA partnership between EveryLibrary Institute and Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson to make available a spreadsheet of book bans and challenges to aid library organizations, library staff, education stakeholders, and concerned parents.
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Comic Book Legal Defense FundOfficial website.
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Freedom to Read FoundationThe Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) is a non-profit legal and educational organization affiliated with the American Library Association. FTRF protects and defends the First Amendment to the Constitution and supports the right of libraries to collect - and individuals to access - information.
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Little Free Library - Book Ban MapThis book map was produced through a collaboration with the Little Free Library organization, PEN America, and the American Library Association (ALA). This map shows the number of book bans in different states and counties, as well as the location of Little Free Libraries in those areas. Through this resource, members of the public can share and access banned books in communities around the country.
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MI Right to ReadAn initiative of the Michigan Library Association (MLA), coordinated through the leadership of the Intellectual Freedom Task Force to protect Michiganders’ right to read, oppose attempts to ban books from Michigan libraries, educate the public about the right to read, oppose any legislation that infringes upon Michigan citizens’ First Amendment rights and ensure that librarians across Michigan will be entrusted to continue to do their jobs and serve the needs of ALL individuals and communities.
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PEN AmericaPEN American Center is the U.S. branch of the world’s leading international literary and human rights organization. PEN International was founded in 1921 in direct response to the ethnic and national divisions that contributed to the First World War. PEN American Center was founded in 1922 and is the largest of the 144 PEN centers in 101 countries that together comprise PEN International.
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Toolkit from Unite Against Book BansResources to help you unite your community against book bans.
Books through Bars
Read and Watch "1984"
If the theme of this year's Banned Books Week has inspired you to revisit (or experience for the first time) 1984, we have access to both the book and the film through the WSU Libraries. Below we have also included remarks from Dr. Shannon Oltmann, Associate Dean of the School of Information Sciences. In the video, she discusses censorship and book banning, and how it relates to the principal messages in 1984.
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1984
by
ISBN: 9780547249643Publication Date: 2013-09-03In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be. Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell's novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.
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Film: 1984This film is available to WSU affiliates through Swank Digital Campus.
Challenge Statistics and Support for Libraries and Librarians
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Challenge Support WebsiteFrom the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom. Resources and guidance.
Banned Books Week from The Big Chair at ALA 2025
Books
The Fight Against Book Bans: Perspectives from the Field
Book bans and challenges frequently make the news, but when the reporting ends, how do we put them in context? The Fight against Book Bans captures the views of dozens of librarians and library science professors regarding the recent flood of book challenges across the United States, gathered in a comprehensive analysis of their impact and significance. It also serves as a guide to responding to challenges.
On Book Banning : Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy
In a survey of legal cases, literary controversies, and philosophical arguments, Ira Wells illustrates the historical opposition to the freedom to read and argues that today's conservatives and progressives alike are warping our children's relationship with literature and teaching them that the solution to opposing viewpoints is outright expurgation. At a moment in which our democratic institutions are buckling under the stress of polarization, On Book Banning is both rallying cry and guide to resistance for those who will always insist upon reading for themselves. (Edited description from the Description page on ProQuest's eBook Central)